302 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



It is certainly a natural law, that man shall pre- 

 serve his health ; this being neither more nor less 

 than a part of the law of self-preservation. But if 

 it be also a natural law, that man shall cultivate his 

 intellect, then this absurd consequence arises ; viz. 

 two natural laws ; obedience to one of which neces- 

 sarily involves an infraction of the other : for 

 nothing can be more notoriously true, than that the 

 close confinement, sedentary habits, and perpetual 

 tension of the mental faculties, necessary to study 

 and the cultivation of the intellect, are highly de- 

 trimental to bodily health. We know, too, that 

 feebleness of body has a direct tendency to enfeeble 

 the mind : thus, the same causes which directly 

 enfeeble the body have the effect, indirectly^ of 

 enfeebling the mind. The very means, therefore, 

 which are necessary to educate and polish the mind, 

 have also a strong tendency to injure it. " Intel- 

 lectual cultivation," says Dr. James Johnson, " sows 

 the seeds of physical deterioration ; and the evils 

 thus inflicted on the flesh fail not to grow up, and 

 ultimately retaliate, with interest, on the spirit." 



I am not singular in my opinion, that a high 

 degree of civilization is inimical to health. Dr. 

 Southwood Smith, in his Philosophy of Health, 

 says : "The usual, the permanent, the natural con- 



